The intelligent control of lighting, and particularly synthetic lighting, in a space over time in response to variables such as external (i.e., natural) lighting variations and room occupancy patterns has the potential to bring benefits in energy consumption, human comfort and well-being, and worker productivity.
Existing systems have various drawbacks including: (1) They often only detect the presence of people, and not their number and spatial distribution in the room; and (2) They typically use cameras or other high resolution sensors, which create high computational loads for real time operation and may present significant privacy or security concerns. Recognizing and responding to the spatial distribution of a room's occupants (e.g., a working group in a cluster versus several persons sitting around a conference table) in a cost effective manner is required to achieve the optimal spatial and spectral distribution of the synthetic light. Unfortunately, current systems cannot provide such a result.